Montenegrin Language

Montenegrin Language

Montenegrin (Crnogorski jezik, Црногорски језик) is an incipient standardized register of the Serbo-Croatian language as spoken by Montenegrins used as the official language of Montenegro. The same subdialect of Shtokavian is also the basis of standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, so all are mutually intelligible and are a single language by that criterion despite being distinct national standards.

The idea of a Montenegrin standard language separate from Serbian appeared in 1990s and gained traction in 2000s via proponents of Montenegrin independence. Montenegrin became the official language of Montenegro with the ratification of a new constitution on 22 October 2007. The Montenegrin standard is still emerging. Its orthography was established 10 July 2009 with the addition of two letters to the alphabet, though grammar and a school curriculum are yet to be approved.